andy474x
Knows the Drill
After a many months of talk, I finally got around to starting my home studio!
I've been on vacation visiting my in-laws for about the last week and a half now. Made the drive back home to MI today, and on the way my wife said "isn't there a big music store somewhere on the way home?" Meaning Sweetwater in Ft. Wayne, IN... why yes, my dear, yes there is. She was nice enough to encourage me to stop by the retail store, talk about a cool place. Lots of nice gear on display, including plenty of PRS guitars and amps. There was an S2 Mira on clearance, but I didn't really need it - my wife saw the price tag and agreed (although it was quite a discount). This led to me discovering the hidden beauty of the PRS pricing scheme - when your lady is used to you buying PRS guitars, she'll feel like it's a victory when you buy something less expensive. Well, I've been wanting a recording interface and a mic, so game on! Picked up a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface and a Sennheiser e906 mic, and was out the door with gear in one arm and a smiling wife in the other.
Got it all set up tonight, and I'm quite pleased so far. This is my first foray into recording, and it was pretty easy to get some good sounds recorded. My goal is to accurately capture the tone coming out of my amp. The Focusrite interface was a breeze to use, and the Sennheiser sounded good right away when I put it on my cab. To complete my setup, I connected my stereo to the Focusrite for monitors, cleared some space for my laptop, and put a rug down, because the concrete floor of the man cave is COLD.
Granted, there are probably a LOT of technical problems here. The random pipes, the size and shape of the room, the fact that it's concrete (although the walls are insulated with spray foam), my amp sitting right next to a sump pump and water softener, using a stereo for monitors... well hey, it's my man cave, so I'll do as I please.
Did I mention that my wife also got me a super cool pedal for Christmas? She got me the Wampler Velvet Fuzz, which has been on my list for a while as well, so I recorded a bit with it to capture a cool tone I found. This pedal will do a crazy "fuzz into a cranked amp" sound, but I've also found that it does a killer Fender-esque breakup when you turn the guitar volume down. I hacked some Keef and such, despite my sloppy playing (hey, I was on vacation), the new rig captured it nicely:
I also played a bit with my Plexi Drive, another favorite, for kicks:
These Wampler pedals are killer when it comes to reacting to the volume control of the guitar, the Plexi Drive especially could be left on all night and worked like a cranked amp, given the right type of gig. Anyways, back to the topic of recording, I'm obviously still tweaking a bit, but I'm very happy with the basics so far. When I play back a clip through the monitor, it sounds like what I hear when I play, and after so much time and money spent on having decent tone, it's nice to be able to capture it! Looking forward to using this setup to record ideas and send them to my bandmates, put together demo tracks of our songs, and collaborate with some of my out-of-state friends. And, of course, put Les out of business, as you can see I'll be stealing clients left and right with such a high grade professional setup...
I've been on vacation visiting my in-laws for about the last week and a half now. Made the drive back home to MI today, and on the way my wife said "isn't there a big music store somewhere on the way home?" Meaning Sweetwater in Ft. Wayne, IN... why yes, my dear, yes there is. She was nice enough to encourage me to stop by the retail store, talk about a cool place. Lots of nice gear on display, including plenty of PRS guitars and amps. There was an S2 Mira on clearance, but I didn't really need it - my wife saw the price tag and agreed (although it was quite a discount). This led to me discovering the hidden beauty of the PRS pricing scheme - when your lady is used to you buying PRS guitars, she'll feel like it's a victory when you buy something less expensive. Well, I've been wanting a recording interface and a mic, so game on! Picked up a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface and a Sennheiser e906 mic, and was out the door with gear in one arm and a smiling wife in the other.
Got it all set up tonight, and I'm quite pleased so far. This is my first foray into recording, and it was pretty easy to get some good sounds recorded. My goal is to accurately capture the tone coming out of my amp. The Focusrite interface was a breeze to use, and the Sennheiser sounded good right away when I put it on my cab. To complete my setup, I connected my stereo to the Focusrite for monitors, cleared some space for my laptop, and put a rug down, because the concrete floor of the man cave is COLD.
Granted, there are probably a LOT of technical problems here. The random pipes, the size and shape of the room, the fact that it's concrete (although the walls are insulated with spray foam), my amp sitting right next to a sump pump and water softener, using a stereo for monitors... well hey, it's my man cave, so I'll do as I please.
Did I mention that my wife also got me a super cool pedal for Christmas? She got me the Wampler Velvet Fuzz, which has been on my list for a while as well, so I recorded a bit with it to capture a cool tone I found. This pedal will do a crazy "fuzz into a cranked amp" sound, but I've also found that it does a killer Fender-esque breakup when you turn the guitar volume down. I hacked some Keef and such, despite my sloppy playing (hey, I was on vacation), the new rig captured it nicely:
I also played a bit with my Plexi Drive, another favorite, for kicks:
These Wampler pedals are killer when it comes to reacting to the volume control of the guitar, the Plexi Drive especially could be left on all night and worked like a cranked amp, given the right type of gig. Anyways, back to the topic of recording, I'm obviously still tweaking a bit, but I'm very happy with the basics so far. When I play back a clip through the monitor, it sounds like what I hear when I play, and after so much time and money spent on having decent tone, it's nice to be able to capture it! Looking forward to using this setup to record ideas and send them to my bandmates, put together demo tracks of our songs, and collaborate with some of my out-of-state friends. And, of course, put Les out of business, as you can see I'll be stealing clients left and right with such a high grade professional setup...
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Keep it simple and learn, dude, forget about the actual state of affairs! Correctness is so not rock'n'roll anyway....
